Railway draft-rigging



l. Fl OCONNGR.

RAILWAY DRAFT HIGGING.

APPLICATION FILED FEB. 4. 1920.

1,374,676. l mama Apr. 12,1921.

A I? II *u QA @I w@ A* UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN F. OCONNOR, 0F CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR T0 vWIILLIAIM H. MINER, OF

CHAZY, NEW YORK.

RAILWAY DRAFT-RIGGING.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 12, 1921.

Application filed February .4, 1920. Serial No.4 '356,344.

p To all whom t may 00a-cern Be it known that I, JOHN OCoNNoR, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Railway Draft- Rigging, of which the following is a full, clear, concise, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification.

This invention relates to improvements in railway draft rigging. A

One object of the invention is to provide a friction draft rigging for railway cars wherein are employed friction elements that may be easily made as ordinary foundry castings and wherein large frictional wearing areas are obtained and the spring resistance located outside of the sills.

Another object of the invention is to provide a railway draft rigging having the springs located outside of the sills whereinthe pressure is applied to the springs at their outer ends in a direction laterally toward the sills to effect the compression of the springs.

Another object of the linvention is to provide a shock absorbing mechanism for railway draft riggings wherein novel means are employed for compensating for wear on the parts or for partial setting of the springs or to obtain a preliminary compression of the springs. v

In the drawing forming'a part of this specification, Figure 1 is a horizontal longitudinal sectional view of a portion of a railway draft rigging showing my improvements in connection therewith. "ig 2 is a vertical transverse sectional view taken on the broken line 2-2 of Fig. 1. And Fig. 3

' is a detail sectional view of the improved adjustable follower, the section corresponding to the line 3-3 0f Fig. 1. In said drawing, 10-10 denote channel-shaped center or draft sills of a railway car to the inner faces of which are secured stop-acting means of any desired form such as the lugs l 11 and 12 arranged in front and rear sets. A portion of a drawbar is indicated at 13, the same being opera-tivel)7 associated with the shock absorbing mechanism proper byv a oke 14. U

n carrying out my invention, I preferably employ a follower A, front and rear E-E at the outer end of the springs, and

connectors in the form of links F-F.

Lach of the end wedges B. has an outer .transversely extendingface 15 adapted to act either directly as a follower in coperation with the stops or to bear against a separate follower such' as the follower A. On its inner side, each wedge B is provided with a wedge face 16 which is comparatively short and a longer wedge'face 17, said faces 16 and 17 intersecting to one side of the longitudinal center of the mechanism and 1n actual practice, the friction wedge surfaces 16-16 `of the two wedges will extend in the saine plane when the parts are in normal neutral position. Each of the shoes C is of triangular form and has two friction surfaces or faces 18 and 19 adapted to coperate respectively with a friction face 17 of one Wedgeand a friction face 16 of the other wedge. Also, the two friction faces 19 of the shoes C are adapted to come into contact when the parts are in normal position as clearly indicated 1n Fig. 1.

E ach spring D has its inner end bearing against the web 0f the corresponding draft sill 10 and any suitable means may be pro- `vided on the sill for centering the inner fixed end of the spring as for instance the integrally 'pressed bosses 20 shown most clearly in Fig. 2. The followers E are preferably in the form of castings and each has a centering lug 21 on its inner face for the spring as also shown in Fig. 2.

The connections between each sho'e C and the follower E most remote therefrom, that is, the follower E which is on the outer side of that sill from which the corresponding shoe moves away during the compressive stroke, are in the form of heavy plate links F. Each of said links is provided at its ends with enlarged bearing bosses 22 that fit within corresponding circular recesses 23-24: provided in the upper and lower facesof the shoes C and followers E, respectively.

The parts are held in assembled relation by the bolts 25. With the construction shown, it is evident that the links F are pivshown most clearly in Fig. 3. The. corre-4 ,10

compression, the follower A 1s made in.

two wedge-shaped sections A and A2, as

sponding inclined faces 2'? and 28 ofthe sections A and A2 are formed with coperating dove-tailed tongue and groove connections as indicated at 29 in Fig. 1. 'It will be noted that the inclined faces 27 and 28 are arranged in a plane extending transversely of the sills and at an `angle to the vertical so that, as the two sections A and A2 are slid upon each other, the effective or over-all thickness between the front and rear faces 30 and 31 of the follower will be changed. To hold the two sections A and A2 in any desired adjusted position, I employ bolts 32. Each bolt 32 has a round head 33 swivelly mounted in a suitable slot 34 in the section A2. The shank of each bolt is passed through a corresponding opening 35 in the other section A. A nut 36 is seated in a recess 37 in the section A in such a way that said nut cannot turn and throughwhich the shank of the bolt is threaded. The upper end of the bolt shank is formed as indicated at 38 to receive a wrench or other suitable tool for turning it and a jam-nut 39 is preferably supplied on the top of the section A. As will be evident, by turning the bolt 32, the two parts A and A2 of the follower can be made to slide upon each other in either desired direction and hence the adjustment effected for either of the purposes hereinbefore mentioned.

The operation of the device is as follows. Assuming an inward movement` of the drawbar, the rear wedge B will remain stationary and the front follower A and wedge-B will move rearwardly. As said rearward movement occurs, the shoes C will be moved laterally and also longitudinally and the movel ments of the shoes C will be such that each shoe approaches, laterally, the nearest adj acent draft-sill. That is, the topshoe C, asA

viewed in Fig. l, will move upwardly thereby effecting compression of the lower spring I) and the lower shoe C will move downwardly, as viewed in Fig. 1, thereby compressing the upperspring D. The result of this action is to apply the compressive force on the respective springs at their outer ends in a direction laterally toward the sills, it being understood that the inner ends of the springs remain fixed or stationary.

By locating the springs outside of the sills, I am enabled to utilize as much of the usual space provided for the gear within the sills, as desired, for the friction elements and this in turn enables me to make the friction elements of relatively large size, rigid construction, and with large wearing areas. Each of the friction elements is also of simple substantially triangular construction thereby enabling me to make the same in the form of ordinary simple castings and minimize the initial expense.

Although I have herein shown and described what I now consider the preferred manner of carrying out the invention, the same is merely illustrative and I contemplate all such changes and modifications as come within the scope of the claims appended hereto.

I- claim:

l. In a railway draft rigging, the combination with draft sills; of laterally arranged springs on the exterior of said sills, said springs having fixed supports 'at their inner ends; friction devices located between the sills; members bearing against the outer ends of said springs; and connections eX- tending from some of the elements ofthe friction devicesto .said members, said elements of the friction devices moving laterally away from the respective remote spring as the friction devices are actuated.

2. In a railway draft rigging, the combination with draft sills; o f friction means located between the sills, said means including a pair of friction elements each of which is movable laterally toward the adjacent sill upon the compressive stroke of the draft rigging; laterally arranged springs; foli loYVer-acting members on the outer ends of sa1d.spr1ngs; and connections betweeny each said laterally movable frlction element to .the respective follower-acting member losaid stop-acting means, said devices iincluding end wedges and laterally separable fricsaid springs; and links pivotally connect-ing each follower with the friction shoe farthest therefrom. y j y..

In witness that I claim the foregoing I lhave hereunto subscribed my name this 29th day of J an. 1920.

J OI-IN F. OCONNOR Vitness META SCHMIDT.

tion shoes; followers at the outer ends of v 

